Notes from the Underground
Notes from Underground (also translated in English as Notes from the Underground or Letters from the Underworld, though "Notes from Underground" is the most literal translation) is an 1864 short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Notes is considered by many to be the first existentialist novel. It presents itself as an excerpt from the rambling memoirs of a bitter, isolated, unnamed narrator (generally referred to by critics as the Underground Man) who is a retired civil servant living in St. Petersburg. The first part of the story is told in monologue form, or the underground man's diary, and attacks emerging Western philosophy, especially Nikolay Chernyshevsky's What Is to Be Done?.
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2009–2026years
60% recommend34% neutral6% critical
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- As I get older I appreciate more how much nineteenth and twentieth century literature has in common with the modern era. Notes From the Underground was a great example of this where the narrator feels that he's destined for great things but self-sabotages along the way, becoming more and more isolated. He isn't that much different from the many educated, underemployed and frustrated, or even insufferable, people on the Internet. We haven't changed that much at all.
- The book I consistently reread is Notes from the Underground. Anything by Balzac is highly rereadable also. I don't read much fiction anymore but fiction has left the deepest imprints on me. I did just read Jew Sus by Feuchtwanger, I'd recommend it. All of Kafka's works are up there too.
- It's subtle in how it delivers it's brilliance: A Clockwork Orange.
Warning: spoilers follow that do not diminish the knock out punch this work delivers: It's written in it's own language, a mixture of Russian and UK slang, which one cannot read at first. About 3 chapters in, the language clicks and then a good reader starts the book over from the beginning. It is a popular book due to the film, and the ultra violence depicted within, but it is also ground breaking philosophical literature because the main character is a hardened criminal and is the narrator, he spends the entire novel explaining his philosophy of life, which by the end of the novel you realize is the same philosophy of modern politics, and the UK edition of the novel ends with the entire novel being the story of a senior member of parliament's youth origin story.
The fact that the novel is in a fictional language increases the reader's submersion in the story line, creating one of the most impactful novels I know.
Another great read, much shorter, more like getting into a street brawl: Notes From The Underground by Dostoyevsky. Practically the creator of self critical essays, and often the first read for people interested in Existentialism.
Anything from the "Beat Generation" authors, anything from Philip K Dick, anything from Herman Hesse.
- I read Crime and Punishment as a teenager and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Raskolnikov’s misadventures are not ‘fun’ but as a psychological exploration of guilt (or lack thereof), it was very interesting.
I like Notes from the Underground and his other short stories (like the Double) even more.
- I've read my fair share of Russian literature, and I never felt depressed from it. If anything works like the Notes from the Underground or the Overcoat reassured me of my sanity in the face of an irrational society and have often confirmed long held yet elusive suspicions I had on how people actually think or behave.
- True confidence is just being too stupid to know what you are getting into. Read Notes from the Underground.
